GÄFGEN v. GERMANY JUDGMENT 9 formed the essential, if not the only, basis for the court’s findings of fact. They were corroborated by the testimony of J.’s sister, the blackmail letter and the note concerning the planning of the crime found in the applicant’s flat. The findings of fact concerning the execution of the crime were exclusively based on the applicant’s confession at the trial. Further items of evidence showed that he had told the truth also in this respect. These included the findings of the autopsy as to the cause of the child’s death, the tyre tracks left by the applicant’s car near the pond where the child’s corpse had been found, and the discovery of money from the ransom which had been found in his flat or paid into his accounts. 35. In assessing the gravity of the applicant’s guilt, the court observed that he had killed his 11-year-old victim and demanded one million euros in ransom in order to preserve his self-created image of a rich and successful young lawyer. It did not share the views expressed by the public prosecutor’s office and the private accessory prosecutors that the applicant’s confession “was worth nothing” as the applicant had only confessed to what had in any event already been proven. The fact that the applicant had volunteered a full confession at the trial, even though all his earlier confessions could not be used as evidence pursuant to Article 136a § 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, was a mitigating factor. However, even without his confession, the applicant would have been found guilty of kidnapping with extortion causing the death of the victim. The applicant had been kept under police surveillance after he had collected the ransom, which had later been found in his flat or paid into his accounts. Furthermore, it had been proved by the autopsy on J.’s corpse that the boy had been suffocated, and tyre tracks left by the applicant’s car had been detected at the place where J.’s body had been found. 36. The court further observed that in questioning the applicant, methods of interrogation prohibited under Article 136a of the Code of Criminal Procedure had been employed. Whether and to what extent detective officer E. and the deputy chief of the Frankfurt police, D., were guilty of an offence because of these threats had to be determined in the criminal investigations then pending against them. However, their allegedly illegal acts did not mitigate the applicant’s own guilt. The misconduct of police officers, belonging to the executive power, could not prevent the judiciary from assessing findings of fact in accordance with the law. 2. The proceedings in the Federal Court of Justice 37. On the day following his conviction, the applicant lodged an appeal on points of law with the Federal Court of Justice. He complained that the Regional Court, in its decision of 9 April 2003, had refused his preliminary application to discontinue the criminal proceedings against him. It had further refused to declare that the use in the criminal proceedings of all other items of evidence, such as the child’s corpse, which had become